Dr. Muqtedar Khan: Pakistan has no grand strategy. It has only one policy: obsession with Kashmir.

Prof. Muqtedar Khan was born in 1966 in Hyderabad Deccan, India. He is a professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware. He is the founding director of the Islamic Studies Program there. He was a senior non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution from 2003 to 2008. He earned his Ph.D. in international relations, political philosophy and Islamic political thought from Georgetown University in May 2000. He advocates independent thinking, and says that it is the inability of Muslims to sustain a dialogue with time and text which sometimes makes Islamic teachings appear anachronistic or intolerant. He has testified at hearings hosted by the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the US House Armed Forces Committee. A fellow of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, he has been the president, vice-president and general secretary of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists. In October 2008, Khan received the Sir Syed Ahmed Khan Award for service to Islam from Aligarh Muslim University. He runs a YouTube channel (   / profmuqtedar  , which hosts his lectures, sermons and commentary on Islam and global affairs. He is critical of radicalism and conservatism in Islamic thought and of Western foreign policies, racism and Islamophobia in the U.S. and the West. According to him, "America is without doubt one of the greatest countries in the world. Because it assumes we are moral beings and capable of doing good -- we are free. And because America assumes we are mature and capable of self governance -- we have democracy." "When I look at Islamic sources, I find in them unprecedented examples of religious tolerance and inclusiveness. They make me want to become a better person. I think the capacity to seek good and do good inheres in all of us. When we subdue this predisposition towards the good, we deny our fundamental humanity". In a Washington Post article entitled "Islam Says Otherwise", he told Bin Laden to "go to hell": "Before we rush to condemn America we must remember that even today millions of poor and miserable people all across the world are lining up outside US embassies eager to come to America, not just to live here but to become an American. No Muslim country today, can claim that people of other nations and other faiths see it as a promise of hope, equality, dignity and prosperity." He has written, "I remember telling my wife; maybe I will be our Henry Kissinger, the first Muslim to become the Secretary of State. Then came Bin Laden and his bloody men and along with the World Trade Center, American Muslim dreams and aspirations came crashing down." Unlike the present-day Islamists, when the prophet of Islam established the first Islamic state, actually a Jewish-Muslim federation extended to religious minorities the rights that are guaranteed to them in the Quran. It was based on the covenant of Medina, a real and actual social contract agreed upon by Muslims, Jews and others that treated them as equal citizens of Medina. They enjoyed the freedom to choose the legal system they wished to live under. Jews could live under Islamic law, or Jewish law or pre-Islamic Arab tribal traditions. There was no compulsion in religion even though Medina was an Islamic state. The difference between Medina and today's Islamic states is profound. According to him, Muslim theology is undergoing a subtle change in the United States. About 57% of American Muslims are OK with gay marriages, but those who are vehemently opposed to it, voted for Trump for this reason. They were 33% of the Muslim community. Religious identity trumped ethnicity in India in 1947. Islam is the fastest spreading religion in the whole world, including Israel and India. Hegemony is not such a bad concept, he says. It happens with the consent of the other party. ************************** Shakil Chaudhary is an alumnus of Government College, Lahore. Subsequently, he studied international relations at Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad and media at the London School of Economics. He has worked for several English-language newspapers. He has written a critically acclaimed book, Handbook of Functional English (Ferozsons), to help those who wish to improve their English skills. He has conducted many workshops on communication, writing and critical thinking skills. He is a former president of the Progressive Writers Association, Islamabad (2021-2022). If you want to see his most popular videos, here are the links to them.    • Why didn't Jinnah implement Islam in Pakis...      • Prof. Hoodbhoy: Pakistan is not a normal c...      • Shahid Siddiqui: The partition ruined Indi...      • Prof. Ishtiaq Ahmed: Muslims Started the C...   You are welcome to follow him on Facebook and Twitter.   / shakil.chaudary     / shakchaudhary